The sky is still garbage with the smoke in the upper atmosphere but...... On the plus side I have discovered a few important issues with imagining under un-favorable environmental conditions. First lesson is the negative impact a Oiii Narrow Band filter has on the end result. Second is the fact that attaining a very good focus is next to impossible, Yet, I keep tinkering around.
Reading some of the comments on other peoples images keeps the ideas coming and worth exploring.... The image below is the result of such a experiment. I had gathered a minimal amount of data for this trial run. It is 14 180 second
Ha images, 5 each of RGG at 180 seconds each. This is the maximum I can image on this target in one evening. From dark until the dome of my SkyShed Pod gets in the way of my guide scope. Guiding through the smoke is a lot tougher than even an average sky offers.
Data was acquired with StellarMate OS controlling a ASI183MM Pro in a SharpStar61 EDPH II on a old
CGEM. A StarField 60 guide scope with a ASI120MM Mini does the guiding. I use the internal guide software that StellarMate (KStars, EKOS) has.
Majority of the processing was done in PixInSight.But this time I used a new workflow. I converted the
Ha grayscale image to
RGB and ran it throgh StarNet++ to eliminate the stars. A mask was used on this starless image and I used the Pix Curves transformation and Color saturation to taste to apply the color. The
RGB data was combined in Pix LRGB combination and the result was tossed into StarNet++ to eliminate everything except the stars. Once that was done The Starless and star image were combined using Pixel Math.
I realize I should get more data, but experiments must go on even with less than ideal workin' material!
A minor trip through Luminar AI gave be this result.
Comment and opinions welcome as always.
Color7822_v3 by
Brent Secord, on Flickr
Scopes: SkyWatcher 8" Quattro, Celestron C8, SkyWatcher ST120, Orion ST80, SharpStar 61EDPH II. SLT 130 Celestron
Mounts: CGEM, CG-4, EQ2, Alt Az, SLT
Cameras: ZWO ASI533MC Pro, ZWO ASI120MM, Canon 1100D